Good writing skills are important, even (or maybe especially) in the age of technology. This week we have pulled writing tips and strategies that include ways to incorporate technology — such as blogs and interactive whiteboards — as well as ways to keep writing assignments relevant, ideas for showcasing and celebrating developing writers' achievements, and more.

For emerging writers, the word bubble presents a delightful and inviting way to create dialogue. Find great book titles to start you off, links to downloadable bubble sheets, and creative ideas for modifying assignments to include speech bubbles in your classroom.

If you have frustrated writers in your class who struggle with how to get started, you will find solutions here. Get great ideas plus free downloadable graphic organizers to help your students generate, organize, and develop their ideas.

Common Core State Standards in writing emphasize the importance of students writing for a purpose. Giving students the opportunity to blog allows an audience for their words that extends further than the walls of the classroom. See how incorporating blogging into your classroom gives purpose to your young writers and authenticity to their work.

By using mentor texts in her writers workshop, this teacher models "juicy" leads, character descriptions, dialogue, and more. Get book lists of mentor texts to model different writing traits, and many free downloadable printables including graphic organizers, rubrics, and planners.

Kid-appropriate social media outlets are great for engaging students in writing, and one of the most engaging forms of social media is the blog. Learn how to use the power of blogging in your classroom to generate a love for writing in your students.

Create excitement and glamor around writing assignments with an “Author’s Chair” where students read from books they completed in earlier writing assignments. And if your school does not hold an Author’s Fair, consider creating one in your own classroom.

Make writing relevant by appealing to your students’ passion for a movie or video they’ve seen. Teach persuasive writing by challenging students to first screen a movie and then write a review that will compel fellow students to either see the movie, or not.

Don’t think of your interactive whiteboard as a glorified projector — interact with it! And more important, have your students interact with it. Learn great strategies for putting your interactive whiteboard front and center in your writing workshops.

In eight well-defined steps, learn how to produce a poetry café in your classroom to showcase student work in the genre. From preparation through performance, Beth guides you through the process that will result in a night parents and poets will long remember.

Teaching word choice to young students yields some unexpected rewards. Here are lesson ideas and activities to take your young Yeats and budding Brontës from similes and metaphors through onomatopoeia and alliteration.

Write, revise, edit, and proofread — the process of writing can easily intimidate a classroom of kids who find it hard enough to get past “I can’t think of anything to write about!” Here is a lesson plan to take your students from prewriting to publishing.

The challenges of teaching writing to students who are English language learners are numerous and, fortunately, so are the tips and tools to help. Take it from a teacher who has been there, done that, and developed writing assignment templates for the taking.